Locals say the croc has evaded captors for two years, has slaughtered farm animals.

By Philip Caulfield New York Daily News

November 4, 2012

A crocodile lurking in the sewers has been terrorizing locals in small city in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a report.

Rajab al-Ankah, head of the Northern Gaza Sewage Station in Beit Lahia, said the five-and-a-half foot sewer croc most likely escaped from a nearby zoo as a baby and has avoided capture for more than two years, Al Arabiya news reported.

“The nets were set up to capture the crocodile, but it managed to escape,” he told the network.

“The slippery ground in the area around the swamps near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza made the escape easier and the crocodile disappeared once more.”

Local in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, said the croc slaughtered a farmer’s two goats that were grazing too close to the sewers.

The beast slips out of the sewage basins to hunt for food, and scurries back underground, evading captors, Ankah said.

“It came as a baby and now it is huge and the more it grows the more dangerous it becomes for the residents of the area and their livestock,” Ankah told the network.

Residents are hoping to catch the croc before it attacks a person, the network said.